MaryRuth's
Using Smart Targeting to expand reach and improve customer acquisition costs
The objective
Driving efficient conversions
MaryRuth's offers premium organic supplements, with the aim of delivering a holistic and natural approach to well-being. Its bestsellers include multi-vitamins and hair growth supplements.
Although MaryRuth's was able to scale ad spend on TikTok over the course of 2023, the company wanted to further build on this success by optimizing targeting and campaign performance heading into the holiday season. As a conversion-focused advertiser, driving conversions while controlling costs per acquisition was its key objective.
The solution
Testing out Smart Targeting
TikTok worked with MaryRuth's to evaluate and optimize the brand's ad targeting strategy. While MaryRuth's has taken multiple approaches to targeting, including Broad, Interest & Behavior, and Audience targeting, the brand had never tried Smart Targeting (the updated version of Targeting Expansion).
Smart Targeting consists of two toggles: Smart Audiences and Smart Interest & Behaviors. When enabled, Smart Targeting allows TikTok to deliver ads outside the designated Interest & Behaviors or Audience settings when it is likely to improve ad performance for the advertiser. Smart Targeting improves performance for most advertisers by reducing CPA and ad fatigue.
To test the solution out, MaryRuth's set up a split test. The team implemented a standard interest-based targeting approach in the control ad group. In the test ad group, they built the same targeting approach but enabled Smart Interest & Behaviors.
The results
More conversions at lower CPA
The test ad group (with Smart Interest & Behaviors enabled) significantly outperformed the control group (without Smart Interest & Behaviors enabled). The test ad group saw a higher click-through rate (CTR), lower cost per acquisition (CPA), and more total conversions.
CTR was +24% higher
CPA was -31% lower
Total conversions increased by +33%
It was also clear that the ad group with Smart Targeting enabled reached a different audience. In reviewing the audience insights, we observed different top interests emerge. This means that TikTok was able to meaningfully adjust and optimize the targeting audience based on real-time signals from the ad group itself.
